The Wonder(92)

“On the whole,” said Eliza, “we’d rather our days be unwritten.”

And Wilkie, looking down to meet the child’s eyes, then back at Eliza, asked, “Shall we begin?”





Author’s Note

The Wonder is an invented story. However, it was inspired by almost fifty cases of so-called Fasting Girls—hailed for surviving without food for long periods—in the British Isles, Western Europe, and North America between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries. These girls and women varied widely in age and background. Some of them (whether Protestant or Catholic) claimed a religious motive, but many didn’t. There were male cases, too, though far fewer. Some of the fasters were put under surveillance for weeks on end; some started eating again, voluntarily or after being coerced, imprisoned, hospitalized, or force-fed; some died; others lived for decades, still claiming not to need food.

Thanks for crucial suggestions go to my agents Kathleen Anderson and Caroline Davidson and my editors Iris Tupholme at HarperCollins Canada, Judy Clain at Little, Brown, and Paul Baggaley at Picador. Tana Wollen and Cormac Kinsella kindly helped me keep my Hiberno-and British Englishes straight, and Tracy Roe’s copyediting was as ever, and in both senses, priceless. Dr. Lisa Godson at National College of Art and Design in Dublin shared her knowledge of nineteenth-century Catholic devotional objects. My friends Sinéad McBrearty and Katherine O’Donnell lent some of my characters their family names, and another is named for the generous Maggie Ryan as a fund-raiser for the Kaleidoscope Trust.





About the Author

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish emigrant twice over: she spent eight years in Cambridge, England, completing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, before moving to London, Ontario. She also migrates between genres, writing for screen, stage, and radio, as well as writing historical and contemporary novels and short stories. Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes. Her film adaptation won Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.